Dave Polykoff is a tech entrepreneur, designer and writer with 6+ years in Product Development. Dave manages multiple start up companies, watches a movie a day, and likes all of your cat memes on Instagram. For more of Dave's micro thoughts check out his Twitter @DavePoly.

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How to make money fast? 50 easy tasks anyone can do

When you’re out of a job and getting short on cash, things can start to get pretty tight financially. It can be weeks or even months before you find a new full-time income solutions, leaving you with a shrinking bank account and pressure on your way of living. This can lead you to start thinking about alternative, easy ways of making a few extra dollars every day to feed your piggy bank.

The most important part when needing money, is how to make money fast. You don’t have time to code a Facebook or build a local business. This cash needs to be easy, and immediate. The good news is there are a ton of quick and easy ways to make money when your bank account is low. Here are 50 easy tasks anyone can do to make cash quick.

Delivery Person

A quick way to get some cash is to grab your bike or car, depending on the venue, and start delivering food to people. There are always tons of jobs posted on Craigslist for this or even just signs at your local pizza shop. You might not get your paycheck for the first week or so, but you’re guaranteed cash tips at the end of each night.

Borrowing Money

Now we all know it’s not ideal to be in debt with someone, but this is more so if you need to get money fast for some sort of emergency. Borrowing from a friend or a family member is the least expensive loan you’ll ever get, but remember to give interest when paying them back. You’re the one who had to take from them.

Put It On Your Card

If you need money to pay for something that you can easily use a credit card for, just put it on your card. Tons of credit cards have great cash back programs. Better yet, sign up for a new card. There are offers every day for different companies offering credit card signup bonuses that range from $100-$500. A few hundred just for signing up? Yes, please.

Sell Your Gold and Silver

You all have that jewelry that you know you’ll never wear again. If you’re willing to part with these pieces, you can end up making quite a bang for your buck. Whether it’s going to your local jeweler or pawning it, make sure you do some research online on the current prices of these metals to make sure you’re not getting scammed or ripped off.

Have A Yard Sale

This one’s good if you live in a big city. Tons of cities have yard sales all throughout spring and summer seasons. Typically, these huge yard sales are free which means that all you have to do is sign up for a slot, and bring a table to place all of your precious belongings that you’ll eventually realize you never needed in the first place.

Sell Old Phones

If you’re like most people, you probably have about 3 or 4 old phones lined up in your Things-I’ll-Never-Use-But-Refuse-To-Throw-Away stash box. You’re in luck this time, because your stubbornness is going to make you fast money. You can list your old phones on eBay, Gazzle or NextWorth. You’ll receive your money through PayPal as soon as the buyer receives the phone.

Sell Stuff on Craigslist

This is pretty similar to the yard sale, given the idea is that you’re selling things and making money fast. Have an old dresser you need to get rid of? Sell it on Craigslist. Have a set of barstools in your basement that you don’t need anymore? Someone on Craigslist is just waiting to scoop them up to redo them for their own home.

Sell Your Clothes

More and more thrift stores are popping up nowadays. While they’re not all Salvation Army or your local mom and pop thrift shop, two popular clothes for cash businesses are Plato’s Closet and Buffalo Exchange. To make money fast, just bring your ID and preferably name-brand clothing articles.

Sell Books

Half Price Books and Hastings are great places to sell your old books online. Do you really need three copies of Catch 22? No, you don’t. If you sell them through Half Price Books and Hastings, you’ll get a little more if you choose to receive store credit. If you opt to get cash, you’ll earn a little less, but it will still make you money fast.

Ticket Scalping

If you have tickets to any upcoming concerts, sporting events or shows, you can easily and legally scalp them as a way to raise money. You can either do this online through eBay or Craigslist, post to your friends on social media sites, or, if you’re really desperate, you can be that creepy person that stands outside of a venue. I wouldn’t really go with that last one though.

Sell Your Car

If you can go without a car for a while or just don’t feel the need to have one anymore, you can sell it. This will help you make money fast. Before you put a sale sign on it, do some research beforehand for an online price guide. I recommend Kelley Blue Book to see current prices in your area.

Make Things to Sell

If you have a creative soul, you can easily make and sell things online. A huge marketplace for homemade crafts is Etsy. These don’t have to be fancy, time consuming, intricate crafts either. You can make anything from personalized pdfs for picture frames to gluing a margarita glass onto a plate and calling it a cake stand.

Become a Street Vendor

If you have about $25 to invest, become a vendor on the street. Whether you sell water bottles, snacks or other packaged goodies, you can easily make more money from this than you’ll spend setting everything up. Still, you need to be cautious as a street vendor because of sketchy areas. Some areas also require vending permits.

Make an eBay Account

Don’t already have an eBay account? Make one now. Aside from selling your things through the site, ask your friends and family members if they’d like you to sell things for them. If you sell a few things for a friend, they can give you a percentage of the profit they made for helping them out.

Sell Your Services on TaskRabbit

Make an account on TaskRabbit to pick up a few tasks to make some money. One user of the site reported that he earned about $1500 after his first week on the site. Depending on your specialties, you can sign up for tasks and be paid within five days of completing them.

Do Tasks Locally

This one works a lot faster than TaskRabbit. Ask your friend, family or even your neighbors if they need help getting any work around the house or other types of errands done. I’m not trying to tell you to take advantage of your elders, but this one works especially good with older people. I’m not saying that you should expect your 70-year old grandmother to give you a few bucks for going grocery shopping for her, or for mowing her lawn, but you know she will.

Become a Mover

If you’re in pretty good shape, or just have a generally strong back, this one is perfect. Grab a few fellow strong buddies and help a family member move. If you don’t personally know anybody who is moving, bring your services to Craigslist. Whatever you’re willing to charge is a lot less than what people are willing to pay professional moving services.

Babysit Children

There are tons of online babysitting service sites that require you to make an entire profile and undergo various tedious background checks. But, if you have the time, it’s definitely worth it. If you don’t have the time, try giving a call up to the people in your life with children for a quick babysitting job.

Pet Sitting

This is very similar to the babysitting gig. There’s tons of online dog sitting sites where you meet up with dog owners and they pay you for watching their dog for a few hours, sometimes even overnight (which means you get a nice paycheck). Also, who doesn’t want to spend time with dogs and pretend that it’s theirs?

Walk Dogs

Yes, people will pay you to walk their dogs for them while they’re at work, or if they’re just not able to. This job usually consists of X amount of walks per day where you earn X amount for each half-hour walk. This is yet another great job for dog lovers. This is also really good as a side gig, especially if you’re in a situation where you work from home so you can go for a walk.

Paint Houses

This job is pretty easy if you have any sort of prior experience painting. If you don’t know anyone personally, post an ad for it online or in the classifieds. This job also pays under the table 9/10 times. So, while hourly rates might not be the greatest at first, you walk away with cold hard cash at the end of each day.

Do Customer Deliveries

If you have Postmates in your area, it’s easy and free to start up as a delivery person. To start, you need either a bike, scooter or a car. Then, at the end of each week, the company deposits your earnings into your bank account. If you’re not already signed up, it could take a few days as Postmates does background checks on all employees.

Wash Cars

If you live in a busy, fast-paced area, it shouldn’t be too hard to get your service up and running. This is yet another low-investment business. If you have a car, make a nice sign and start washing your own to attract possible customers. You’ll walk away with a nice all cash profit at the end of each day.

Sell Rides

Whether you become a driver for Uber or Lyft, or just decide to sell cheap rides to family members and friends, it’s pretty easy to make money from driving around. Although the Uber and Lyft options will make you more money from more customers in the end, they run background checks on employees so this might take a while to startup.

Shovel Snow

Invest a few bucks into a nice shovel and on a snow filled day, you’ll easily make it back within a few sidewalks. Parents don’t want to shovel on a snowy day, so they try to take the opportunity as a “teaching tool” to make their children do it. From a child who paid strangers to shovel her sidewalk so she wouldn’t have to, you’ll definitely make a lot of money from this.

Clean Houses

If you clean your own home then you already have all of the experience it takes to clean other people’s homes. Getting into a business like Airbnb where rental cleaners are necessary is especially promising. Start off by giving friends and family a few calls and seeing if their house needs a good polish.

Do Handyman Work

If you’re a good general handyman who knows how to fix drains, unclog toilets or install counters, you’d make a good handyman. AngiesList is a good place to get your foot in the door when it come to this. Make an account now versus later though, as it may take some time because they require employees to go through background checks.

Clean Gutters

HomeAdvisor reported that most homeowners often pay between $100 and $190 to have their gutters and downspouts cleaned. A lot of hardware stores sell gutter cleaning supply kits for roughly $50. So, if you offer services to one homeowner for $50, you’ve already made your investment back.

Haul Junk

If you have a big pick-up truck or a big van that you don’t mind getting a bit dirty, offer your services to pick up their unwanted junk. Beforehand, make sure you check out the price it costs to empty your truck at since each place charges different fees. If you’re the one in your family or social circle with a big vehicle, make it known!

Work Events

If you search online enough, again usually Craigslist, you’ll find that there may be some carnivals, festivals or just other miscellaneous events coming to your city that need labor. Whether this includes setting up and striking down or just working behind the counter as a vendor, tons of events like this always need help. At the end of the day, you’ll typically be paid cash.

Check PayPal

Personally, I’m horrible with my PayPal account. I never pay much attention to what comes and goes since I’m so up and down about the things I actually use it for. Go on, check your account right now. I’m sure you have at least $10 sitting in there for something you didn’t even know you were being paid for.

Cash in Cans and Bottles

There are ten states in the U.S. that have beverage container deposit laws. If you live in one of these states, you’ll notice that a lot of your containers will either give you 5 or 10 cents back for cashing them in. Before you resort to dumpster diving, go through your recycle bins and move on to close friends who wouldn’t find your new hobby too weird.

Tap into Emergency Funds

We all have them. And, if you don’t, do some of the tasks listed above so you can have one! Depending on the scenario, this may well be an emergency. Please, realize that being broke during the Victoria’s Secret Semi Annual Sale does not count as a valid emergency.

Collect Your Loose Change

Dig through your house a little bit and you’re sure to find dollar bills and large quantities of quarters that you didn’t know were underneath of your sofa. After I finish my spring cleaning, I always happen to find a large Mason jar or piggy bank that I forgot that I had. Take these earnings to your bank or a Coinstar for immediate cash.

Return Your Purchases

You know that thing that you bought as an impulse because you saw it at Walmart on the aisle that sells As-Seen-On-TV items? Yeah, go ahead and return that. You know you’re only going to use it once, MAYBE twice before you abandon it forever. Lucky for you, Walmart is generous enough to give you a 90-day money-back-guarantee on all returns.

Collect Your Tax Refund

When tax season approaches, the quickest way to get your refund money back is to file electronically and opt to get direct deposit into your bank account. Even though this is the fastest way, you might need your money quicker than two weeks. In order to get the money the day you file, choose the expensive refund anticipation loan route.

Flip Craigslist Items

Go on Craigslist and checkout the free section. On here you’ll find tons of different objects that people don’t care to make money off of because they need to get rid of it that badly. Once you pick-up your free item, you can come up with a creative way to turn into something that someone would be willing to buy.

Sell Your Plasma

Check online to see if there is a BioLife Plasma Service center near you. While I’ve never done it, I have a lot of friends in college that did it for quick funds as there is a BioLife center across the street from my apartment. You can make up to $200 selling your plasma per month, which is loaded onto a Visa prepaid card.

Sell Ads on Your Site

If you have a website, take advantage and sell ads on it. By selling ads, you usually get paid within two days via PayPal. If you’ve never sold ads before, look online for sites similar to yours and contact the ads that are posted. By doing this, you can sometimes earn up to $100, but this all depends on your audience.

Be a Street Musician

If you have talent, show it! You can make money as a street musician whether you’re playing a guitar or just singing your soul out. But, beware. How good you are will determine how much cash you bring home at the end of the night.

Be a Street Dancer

This is the same as being a musician, but instead grab a friend and bust a move in the busiest part of your city. Again, this will only work if you have some sort of talent. But if you can’t dance too well, there are tons of YouTube tutorials for that. Trust me, I may have used some at one point or another…

Throw a Party

Throw a party, but it has to be a huge party. If you charge $5 at the door, you’ll be able to make back your investment within 20-25 people walking through your front door.

Find a Renter

Renting a spare room out in your house can promise you cash every single month. Even if you’re looking for fast cash now, you’ll be earning easy cash over the time by collecting someone’s rent monthly and you’ll be able to either help pay off your mortgage, or send it straight into your rainy day fund.

Use Airbnb

Airbnb isn’t just great for you to get deals while traveling instead of spending hundreds on hotels, it’s also a great way to make money. This is an ideal situation if you have a significant other whose place you frequently stay at. If you know that you have an event coming up where you won’t be home for the weekend or just randomly sleep out during the week, you can rent your spot out on Airbnb so you’re earning money while doing theoretically nothing.

Go Scavenging

It’s amazing how many people throw out treasure thinking that it’s just trash. I’ve even seen people walking down streets filled with odd furniture to fix up or just scrap metals to sell using a shopping cart. I wouldn’t go that far, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make money fast.

Check Classified Ads

Cash making opportunities often show up online or in the newspaper. Keep your eye out because you’ll never know when you’ll find a university study that pays $100 to each participant for a day’s worth of work on the experiment of ADHD. It’s also super easy to find short film jobs where you often get paid $50 for a day of work. Not that I have experience or anything…

Cash in Reward Points

If you have a credit card, you’re bound to have some reward points stacked up. My personal experience with American Express is that you get 3% back on restaurants and groceries while the rest of your purchases give back 1%. That’s bound to stack up in redeemable gift cards, which in return you can easily turn into cash using CoinStar machines.

Write for a Blog

While most blogs don’t pay you right away, there are a few websites that use PayPal to pay you instantly for your articles. This is good especially for college students that have an hour or so out of their day to earn quick cash.

Charge for Friendship

According to the inventors of RentABuddy, you can make up to $2000 per week just selling your friendship. The options on what you could do with your buddy are endless whether it’s just playing a game of chess, or being a tour guide to an out-of-towner.

Spend Less

I know this one sounds redundant to what your parents told you your entire life, but it’s true. This doesn’t necessarily make you cash, but it certainly frees up any money you were going to spend on that new sports jersey, or that fancy dinner that you were going to take your significant other out for that you can make at home for a lot cheaper. It’ll slow down your spending and you’ll earn more in the long run.